19 cases reported on single day in Andhra Pradesh: Govt

(EDS: Updating with details)

Amaravati, Apr 8 (PTI): Coronavirus cases continued their upward surge in Andhra Pradesh with 19 more reported on Wednesday, taking the total to 348, state government said.

At the same time, three patients recovered and got discharged from hospital in Visakhapatnam, the latest bulletin issued by the State Nodal Officer said.

Since Tuesday, 34 new cases were added to the victims list in the state. The total number of patients who got cured and discharged from hospital now stands at nine.

The toll due to COVID-19 remained at four and the number of active cases stood at 335.

Official sources, meanwhile, said the son of the 64- year-old patient, who succumbed on April 4 in Anantapuramu, contracted the disease from his father.

Also, four medical staff, including the doctor who attended on the patient, of Anantapuramu government hospital also contracted the disease from the same source.

The 64-year-old man tested positive upon his return from Mecca.

Wrong handling of the patient and violation of prescribed protocols after his death led to the transmission of the virus to these five people, the sources said.

These five apart, two other COVID-19 positive cases were also reported from Anantapuramu district on Wednesday, taking the district tally to 13. These two cases were related to the Tablighi Jamaat, the sources added.

Eight fresh cases were added in Guntur district since Wednesday, three in Prakasam and one in West Godavari.

Kurnool continued to be on the top with 75 cases while Guntur jumped a spot to the second with 49, followed by SPS Nellore 48.

Significantly, Srikakulam and Vizianagaram maintained their clean record with zero cases so far.

Fortunately, no one from our district went to the Tablighi Jamaat event and also our district foreign returnees didnt go to much vulnerable countries. We are, however, keeping our fingers crossed while doing surveillance and testing for all vulnerable returnees from Delhi, Mumbai and other states, the Collector of a district told PTI over phone.